Phone records show that accused murderer Telly Hankton knew his alibi witness, Danielle Hampton, before she claimed they met as strangers in Audubon Park on May 13, 2008, the same day police say he fired a fatal stream of bullets into Darnell Stewart's face, according to a brief police report.

Times-Picayune archiveCriminal District Court Judge Frank Marullo released perjury suspect Danielle Hampton on her own recognizance after her arrest Monday.

Police on Monday arrested Hampton, 35, and booked her with two counts of perjury stemming from her Aug. 28 trial testimony in one of two second-degree murder cases against Hankton, a man police have called one of the city's most dangerous.

Hampton told the jury she and Hankton struck up a conversation at lunchtime that day, and then he called her that evening asking her out for drinks.

She testified they were at the W Hotel bar at the time when police say Hankton, 35, killed Stewart after Hankton's cousin, Andre Hankton, rammed Stewart with the front end of his Mustang and sent him flying on South Claiborne Avenue.

"Phone records indicated that she knew Mr. Hankton prior to the day in question," NOPD Detective James O'Hern wrote in a brief summary of the case.

Danielle Hampton, left, and Telly Hankton, right

Hampton's arrest was part of an ongoing investigation by the FBI and NOPD, said Christopher Bowman, an assistant district attorney and spokesman for Orleans Parish DA Leon Cannizzaro. He declined to comment on details of the phone records.

Criminal District Court Judge Frank Marullo released Hampton, a manager at the Audubon Zoo, on her own recognizance in lieu of $20,000 bond, court records show. Marullo was presiding over a trial Tuesday morning and was not immediately available for comment.

Criminal District Court Judge Frank Marullo

Cannizzaro has scheduled a 3 p.m. news conference to discuss the bond Marullo granted, "as well as the practice of issuing ROR bonds in Criminal District Court."

A jury hung July 29 after a four-day trial, after Hampton and her friend, Sana Johnson, provided the only defense testimony, an alibi that prosecutors called "a farce."

Johnson testified that she recalled Hampton's surprise at seeing Hankton's face on TV as a wanted man the day after their date.

In a brief statement of the perjury case, NOPD Detective James O'Hern wrote: "Phone records indicated that she knew Mr. Hankton prior to the day in question."

A conviction for perjury in a trial with a potential life sentence - such as Hankton faced - carries a prison term of five to 40 years, or a fine up to $100,000 under state law.

Stewart, the murder victim, was one of two men suspected but never prosecuted in the 2007 killing of George "Cup" Hankton, Andre's brother and Telly's cousin. Prosecutors say the Hankton's sought revenge, chasing him up and down South Claiborne Avenue before the murder.

The other suspect in Cup Hankton's murder, Jessie Reed, was shot dead in June, 2009. Telly Hankton and another man are scheduled to stand trial next month in that case, although it may change depending on a new trial date in Stewart's murder.

Andre Hankton, 33, is slated to be tried separately in Stewart's killing, in October.